Former Playmate, B-movie actress Yvette Vickers' mummified body found in home

Yvette Vickers, an old-school Playboy Playmate who also starred in such horribly awesome movies such as 1958's Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, was found dead in her L.A. home on April 27. The 82-year-old's mummified body was there for close to a year, police said.

A neighbor, actress Susan Savage, found the body in an upstairs room, the L.A. Times reports. No cause of death could be determined, but police don't suspect foul play. Savage said she decided to enter the house after seeing old, yellowed letters and cobwebs in the mailbox.

The house was filled with clothes, junk mail and letters stacked into barriers, Savage said. She said she found Vickers in a room in which the cordless phone had been knocked off its cradle and contained a space heater that was still on after all this time, the Times reports.

"She kept to herself, had friends and seemed like a very independent spirit," Savage said of Vickers, who starred in other movies like Attack of the Giant Leeches (which were caused in the movie by radiation from Cape Canveral) and Reform School Girl. She also played Lily Peters in Paul Newman's Hud. "To the end she still got cards and letter from all over the world requesting photos and still wanting to be her friend.... We've all been crying about this. Nobody should be left alone like that."

Vickers, the Playmate of the Month for July 1959, was born Yvette Vedder in Kansas City, Mo., in 1936 and was married and divorced three times. She had no children.

WEDNESDAY UPDATE: The L.A. Times reported Vickers' age as 82, and independently verified her birth year as 1928, which they didn't include in their original article. Various sources -- including IMDB, which The Juice* used -- listed her birth year as 1936. We regret the error, and appreciate everyone who questioned our math skills, or lack thereof. That's why we write this stuff for a living and don't work for NASA.

[Photo: With cheatin' hubby William Hudson in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. via YouTube]

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Here's the latest celebrity gossip and news about actors on drugs, pop stars having babies, Hollywood stars getting married and celebrity deaths. Compiled by Lydia Harvey and the folks at tbt*, Tampa Bay's free daily newspaper, it pokes fun at celebrity gossip and those who worship it. And don't forget the amazing YouTube clips that find their way into the Juice.